Native Americans of San Miguel Arcángel

San Miguel was the second mission established in the land of the Salinan people, six years after San Antonio de Padua. The Salinan, thought to number almost 3000 at the time of European contact, were hunter-gatherers .

INDIAN WOMAN GATHERING ACORNSHutchings' California Magazine, 1859

The Spanish found the Salinan a "friendly and charitable people" who adapted easily to mission life.

DRAWING OF CALIFORNIA NATIVEJ.W. Audubon c. 1849

In the mission era the natives who became neophytes at San Antonio de Padua were called Antoniaños; those associated with San Miguel were known as Migueleños. San Miguel also recruited some Yokuts and Chumash. 1/ 500

The Salinan population, estimated at "fewer than 700" by 1831 declined even more rapidly after secularization. 1